Waikerie Water & Nature Play Park

Review by Katrina Gogel

Waikerie Water and Nature Play Park has been designed to blend into its natural setting. There’s no colourful plastic equipment here – just beautiful wooden structures, steel water play stations and natural surfaces.

Situated in the riverfront reserve makes it easy to find, parking is aplenty and there’s lots of green lawn for the kids to run around on.

Community spirit is alive and well in the Riverland town of Waikerie, with locals, groups and businesses coming together to fund and bring to fruition a new water and nature play park for all to enjoy.

This park was built on a tiny budget and strong community! I won a Fund My Neighbourhood grant of $150,000 and our local community added over $70,000 for the building of this park. It’s been wonderful for our small community- please come and visit us this holidays…and the Waikerie Silo Art and Waikerie Santa’s Cave while you’re here. – Donna Matthews

On our recent road trip through the Riverland we visited this near-new playground and our two boys put it to the test!

Here’s what’s on offer at the Waikerie Water & Nature Play Park:

Flying Fox

The first thing our boys raced towards when seeing the park was the forty-metre long, double flying fox. The four of us had a blast racing against each other, with our three year old wanting in on the action too (with assistance from Dad). This is a fab piece of equipment that will be sure to put a smile on the faces of the young, and young at heart!

Water Play

The main attraction to this park and where our boys spent the majority of their time playing is the large water play area. Here, a pump directs the flow of water to a large basin, which once filled (and the plug released) flows into a cement dam. Channels, or ‘rivers’ run off from this section, and children will have fun opening and closing the flood gates to release the water through to the sandpit. The park also features spray rocks, which the boys thought were fantastic!

Play Equipment

There’s lots of other equipment here for little ones to play on if you can drag them away from the water area! Master three and I went exploring together and checked out the six metre high teepee, which not only has a ladder, but also a climbing net and rock wall to challenge little feet and hands. The slippery slide is the perfect size for toddlers.

Other equipment on offer throughout the park:

Sensory Pin board (great fun!!)

Climbing wall, which has been integrated into the retaining wall

Small no-through tunnel, great for hiding

Nest swing

Swing set

Monkey bars

Magnifying glass

Xylophone

Stepping logs

Boat

Digger in sandpit area

Lots of logs to rest on

What we love about Waikerie Water & Nature Play

Everything! We all had a blast!

Beautiful riverfront location

Lots of green grass to run around and picnic on

Lots of natural shade

Facilities

Bench seating

Undercover picnic tables

Rubbish bins

Toilet block (located next to the older playground, about 200 metres away)

Drinking fountain

Car parking (either along the riverfront and walk the short distance to the nature playground, or drive up into the cul de sac alongside the nature playground)

BBQ shelters in the riverfront reserve

Things to consider:

The nature play space is not fenced, though it’s been well designed and is in the large reserve away from roads

Your kids will probably get wet! Take a towel and spare clothes

The toilets are a little distance away. It may pay to visit them first before playing!

Things to see and do nearby:

And if you’re looking for other things to do while in town, all you have to do is take a look at the signpost in the middle of the playground, which points out nearby attractions and things to do. We made sure to call past the beautiful new silo art and have a look, and enjoyed our stay at the caravan park which is located a hop, skip and jump away from the nature playground.

At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.

Image Source: All photos by Katrina Gogel

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